


The Closest to Heaven That I'll Ever Be

by EineKleineFartmusik



Series: Radiant Reyes [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Radiant Reyes Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2013-04-25
Packaged: 2017-12-09 10:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/773258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EineKleineFartmusik/pseuds/EineKleineFartmusik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes love is simply waiting just over the horizon.  Or in this case just across a couple state borders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Closest to Heaven That I'll Ever Be

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a thing where Krakenface and I took the cafeteria scene from Teen Wolf 2.03 and blew it way out of proportion. Namely that Erica has a deep and abiding love of apples. This is the result and once again it is mostly Krakenface's fault.

The first time Erica spent the entire summer in Washington was the same year her mother told her that “she was just so tired.” Erica didn’t know what her mother meant until many years later, but even as a small child she got the feeling she had done something wrong. Everything seemed so bad all of a sudden; Erica’s dad would either be yelling or ignoring her. Her mom cried a lot more than she used to. And always, every single time, Erica grew more and more convinced that it was her fault.

The first time Erica spent the entire summer in Washington was also the first time her father said that she was someone else’s problem for a while.

It was also the first summer she ever had a candied apple.

When she heard her father say that, Erica pulled away from where her grandmother had been fussing with her hair and began to run. Mrs. Reyes called after her but Erica couldn’t hear anything besides the obvious relief in her father’s voice. He was glad she wasn’t going to be in California for the summer. He was grateful for it. How could he feel that way? What had she done? What had she ever done?

Erica heard her grandfather’s voice behind her, catching up quickly now that it was obvious she wasn’t going to stop. Her father’s voice was absent. If she had looked back, she would have seen the dust plume from his car as he sped down this in-laws’ driveway. As it was, Erica didn’t see anything but the green tunnels formed by the apple orchard and the blue sky that was so bright it burned her eyes. She had to get away, had to be somewhere where she couldn’t cause people problems. She had almost reached the sanctuary of green when her grandfather caught her, sweeping her up into his arms. It should have been a moment of joy and playfulness, a game of cat and mouse where getting caught wouldn’t have felt like being captured, but that was not Erica’s life back then. Instead she was caught and she felt like a captive, whether to her own faults or to the judgement of others even she could no say.

She cried the entire way back to the house as her grandfather tried to soothe her, whispering that her father had just been tired and stressed, that he couldn’t possibly have meant what he said. None of it mattered; her father’s words still echoed in her mind.

“Erica, honey, it’ll all be alright, don’t cry girl. Here, your grandma wants to say hello again, would that be okay? She’s missed you terribly; it’s been so long since you visited us.” Grandma Reyes was waiting on the porch worrying at her shirt hem. When Mr. Reyes reached the house she rushed down and took Erica into her arms, rocking her gently has the young girl continued to cry quietly on her shoulder. Her grandpa ran his hand through Erica’s hair while sharing a look with Mrs. Reyes.

“I’ll go get her something from the kitchen, yeah?” Grandpa Reyes nodded once before heading past his wife into the house.

When he was finished in the kitchen, Erica and his wife had made it into the living room, where Erica was bundled up in the quilt that normally lay on the back of the sofa. She seemed quiescent, though he heard sniffles emerging from the cocoon of fabric every few seconds. Erica looked up as her grandpa crouched in front of her with his hand behind his back.

“Hey there honey, feeling any better?” Grandpa Reyes smiled gently at the bundle of blankets, hopefully at where Erica’s head was. When no answer was forthcoming, he spoke up again. “Hey, I brought you something, but you might want to put your hand out first.”

This brought Erica out of hiding, as her curiosity got the better of her. Her head poked out of the quilt and she stuck her hand out in the classic “gimme” movement. Her grandpa chuckled softly, glad that he finally got a positive reaction from her. He brought his hand out from behind his back, revealing a candied apple. Erica was almost entranced by the treat, it’s hard shell, the deep red color; it was beautiful to her. And when she first bit into it, the flavor was unlike anything she’d ever had before; sweet and tart at the same time almost to the limit of tolerance. Halfway through eating it, she realized she was smiling.

“Thank you. grandpa.” Erica remembered her manners finally, feeling a little bad for being so rude to her grandparents.

“It’s no trouble at all, dearest, anytime.” Grandma Reyes spoke up, saving her husband from the discomfort she knew he felt accepting thanks. “You just had us a little worried is all. Please promise you won’t run away like that again; we couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.” Her grandma pulled Erica into her arms again as she said this, hugging the young girl tighter when she snuggled into her arms.

“I promise.” Erica’s words started to slur as she succumbed to the exhaustion she was feeling after all that had happened.

That entire summer, Erica relearned what it meant to have family; she knew what it was to be loved unconditionally again. And all that time, there were apples. Fresh cut apple slices for snacks, apples with breakfast, pies and cakes always featuring apples, and whenever things started to get bad for her, Grandpa Reyes would make her a candied apple. When it came time for her to return to California, it took promises of a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Reyes and an entire bushel of apples for Erica to agree to get into the car.

Over the years, Washington became Erica’s own little Eden; at least on her grandparents’ orchard. She spent every summer at the orchard, and throughout the rest of the year she always looked forward to seeing Washington again. Even in California, she looked for apples whenever she was feeling down.

But that all ended when her grandparents died in a car crash in Oregon. They were on their way to a farmer’s market in the area. All of a sudden, Erica had no sanctuary anymore. All she had were parents who wished she wasn’t their daughter, classmates who thought she was a joke, and seizures that kept getting worse.

But she still had apples. And Erica knew that no matter where her life went, no matter what problems arose, she would always love apples. Washington was famous for them, wasn’t it?


End file.
